XVII.

Dec.

learned as little as the ministers, and with a per- CHAP. verseness equal to theirs, insisted on maintaining the declaratory act. "The Americans have not called 1774. for its repeal," was his reply to all objections; and he never could be made to comprehend the forbearance of congress. So nothing remained for Chatham but to rely on himself. The opposition, thus divided, excited no alarm.

Jan.

12.

The king was inflexible; and the majority of the cabinet, instead of respecting Lord North's scruples, were intriguing to get him turned out, and his place supplied by a thorough assertor of British supremacy. 1775. A cabinet council was held on the twelfth of January, and the current of its opinions drifted the minister into the war, which he wished to avoid. His colleagues refused to find in the proceedings of congress any honorable basis for conciliation. It was therefore resolved to interdict all commerce with the Americans; to protect the loyal, and to declare all others traitors and rebels. The vote was designed only to create division in the colonies, but it involved a civil war.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHATHAM LAYS THE FOUNDATION OF PEACE.

CHAP.

JANUARY 20, 1775.

Ar the meeting of parliament after the holidays, XVIII. Lord North, who had no plan of his own, presented 1775. papers relating to America. Burke complained of Jan. them as partial. Chatham, who alone among the

Jan.

20.

public men of England had the sagacity and courage to propose what was necessary for conciliation, was reminded of the statesman who said to his son: "See with how little wisdom this world of ours is governed;" and he pictured to himself Ximenes and Cortes discussing their merits in the shades.

The twentieth of January was the first day of the session in the house of lords. It is not probable that even one of the peers had heard of the settlements beyond the Alleghanies, where the Watauga and the Forks of Holston flow to the Tennessee. Yet on the same day, the lords of that region, most of them Presbyterians of Scottish Irish descent, met in council near Abingdon. Their united congregations, having suffered from sabbaths too much profaned, or

XVIII

1775.

Jan.

20.

wasted in melancholy silence at home, had called CHAP Charles Cummings to the pastoral charge of their precious and immortal souls. The men never went to public worship without being armed, or without their families. Their minister, on Sabbath morning, would ride to the service, armed with shot pouch and rifle. Their meeting-house, which was always filled, was a large cabin of unhewn logs; and when about twice in the year the bread and cup were distributed, the table was spread outside of the church in the neighboring grove. The news from congress reached them slowly; but on receiving an account of what had been done, they assembled in convention, and the spirit of freedom swept through their minds as naturally as the ceaseless forest wind sighs through the firs down the sides of the Black Mountains. They adhered unanimously to the association of congress, and named as their committee, Charles Cummings, their minister; Preston, Christian, Arthur Campbell, John Campbell, Evan Shelby, and others. They felt that they had a country; and adopting the delegates of Virginia as their representatives, they addressed them as men whose conduct would immortalize them in its annals. "We explored," said they, "our uncultivated wilderness, bordering on many nations of savages, and surrounded by mountains almost inaccessible to any but these savages. But even to these remote regions the hand of power hath pursued us, to strip us of that liberty and property, with which God, nature, and the rights of humanity have vested us. We are willing to contribute all in our power, if applied to constitutionally, but cannot think of submitting our liberty or prop

1775.

Jan.

CHAP. erty to a venal British parliament, or a corrupt minXVIII. istry. We are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender any of our inestimable privileges to any power upon earth, but at the expense of our lives. These are our real though unpolished sentiments of liberty and loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and die."

20.

While they were publishing in the western forests this declaration of a purpose, which they were sure to make good, Chatham was attempting to rouse the ministry from its indifference. "Your presence at this day's debate," said he to Franklin, whom he met by appointment in the lobby of the house of lords, "will be of more service to America than mine;" and walking with him arm in arm, he would have introduced him near the throne among the sons and brothers of peers; but being reminded of the rule of the house, placed him below the bar, where he was still more conspicuous.

So soon as Dartmouth had laid the papers before the house, Chatham rose, and after inveighing bitterly against the dilatoriness of the communication, moved to address the king for "immediate orders to remove the forces from the town of Boston as soon as possible."

แ My lords!" he continued, with a crowd of Americans as his breathless listeners, "the way must be immediately opened for reconciliation; it will soon be too late; an hour now lost may produce years of calamity. This measure of recalling the troops from Boston, is preparatory to the restoration of your peace, and the establishment of your prosperity.

"Resistance to your acts was necessary as it was

XVIII.

just; and your imperious doctrine of the omnipo- CHAP. tence of parliament and the necessity of submission, will be found equally impotent to convince or to en- 1775. slave.

“The means of enforcing thraldom are as weak in practice, as they are unjust in principle. General Gage and the troops under his command are penned up, pining in inglorious inactivity. You may call them an army of safety and of guard; but they are in truth an army of impotence; and to make the folly equal to the disgrace, they are an army of irritation. But this tameness, however contemptible, cannot be censured; for the first drop of blood, shed in civil and unnatural war, will make a wound that years, perhaps ages, may not heal. Their force would be most disproportionately exerted against a brave, generous, and united people, with arms in their hands, and courage in their hearts: three millions of people, the genuine descendants of a valiant and pious ancestry, driven to those deserts by the narrow maxims of a superstitious tyranny. And is the spirit of persecution never to be appeased? Are the brave sons of those brave forefathers to inherit their sufferings, as they have inherited their virtues? Are they to sustain the infliction of the most oppressive and unexampled severity? They have been condemned unheard. The indiscriminate hand of vengeance has lumped together innocent and guilty; with all the formalities of hostility, has blocked up the town of Boston, and reduced to beggary and famine thirty thousand inhabitants.

"But his Majesty is advised that the union in America cannot last! I pronounce it a union, solid,

Jan. 20.